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Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Comedian Damon Wayans has come out in support of embattled comedian Bill Cosby. Wayans says Cosby wasn’t raping the women who accuse him of various levels of sexual assault. Wayans says the women coming out of the woodwork are working a money hustle, and some of them, by their looks, are unrapeable.

I don’t even know where to begin with this foolishness. When the Cosby allegations first came to light a decade ago I could see the basis for some of his support. It was one woman, with one story, and no one wanted to believe this one woman’s story as it would take down a man we all at one point slotted into the role of our father. Fast forward 10, 15 years later and there are now more than 50 women accusing Cosby of sexual assault. Their stories are all eerily similar in that they say Cosby drugged them or drank them into non-consensual oblivion. And then there’s that deposition that was finally released where Cosby, in his candor, admitted to procuring Quaaludes for the sole and express purpose of having sex. Cosby never admitted to rape, and he probably never will, but by his own implication what he is allegedly accused of doing to women is not only the women’s truth, but THE truth beyond a reasonable doubt.

50 women, most of whom do not all know each other, wouldn’t all concoct a story about being raped by a comedian in an ugly sweater.

Secondly, pressing charges against a rapist is not a money hustle. This is not some trap these women are setting for Mr. Cosby to fall into. They gain nothing by publicizing their abuse decades after the statute of limitations would have run out if they had filed criminal charges in the first place. These women are not coming after Cosby for alimony, or child support, or some ridiculous settlement sum that would be suitably sufficient to buy their silence. These women aren’t making money from their victimization. These women are regaining their power that was stolen from them when Bill Cosby entitled himself to them. These women are only regaining their agency as women over themselves and their body; and to a woman that’s more valuable than any dollar figure Cosby could ever offer.

Finally, let’s address the most egregious claim Damon Wayans made in his tirade to get attention. By the looks of some of the women they are unrapeable. WTF. Not only is this statement asinine and ass backwards, it’s irrelevant and has nothing to do with the actual act of rape. My Law & Order: SVU fans no that rape is not about looks, sex, or attraction but power and control. Scientific communities continue to debate this hypothesis, but that is mostly from researchers going on the theory that rape is about sexual gratification in an effort to please defense attorneys working to get their client off on a rape charge.

Sex is an intentional act, which means rape, in all of it’s horror, by the assailant is an intentional act. When Bill Cosby allegedly sexually assaulted the women who accuse him of such, Bill Cosby intentionally forced himself upon each and every one of those women, some of them more than once, others over the course of a saddistic relationship, because he felt like he had the right to do so. Bill Cosby was then and is now a married man. He didn’t need a mistress, or jump off, though he may have had all of those extra-marital relationships, to receive sexual gratification. Bill Cosby chose to take his gratification from women who did not want to grant him the pleasure. Models, actresses, comediennes, rising TV stars, and women whose stars were stamped out before they could brighten said NO, and Bill Cosby disregarded their words and raped their semi-comatose bodies. That is the power and control of a rapist not the motivations of a man so overcome by a woman’s beauty, or personality that he just had to have her and that man got caught up in the passion of the moment.

Looks never played a role into Cosby’s actions because they don’t matter. They didn’t matter then and they don’t matter now. Bill Cosby was the HNIC for decades; telling jokes, raising TV children into responsible adults with metaphors, anecdotes, and allegory used to drive his point across with just a bit of humor. His status made him entitled and he took that entitlement to mean that he could have any woman who came into his presence; her looks be damned.

But Damon Wayans doesn’t see it that way. But then again most rape apologists won’t.Questions1. Does Bill Cosby still deserve support from the Black community, Black men, fellow comedians?2. Why is it hard for folks to accept Bill Cosby's near criminal imperfection?3. What do you make of Damon Wayans comments?

Comedian Damon Wayans has come out in support of embattled comedian Bill Cosby. Wayans says Cosby wasn’t raping the women who accuse him of various levels of sexual assault. Wayans says the women coming out of the woodwork are working a money hustle, and some of them, by their looks, are unrapeable.

I don’t even know where to begin with this foolishness. When the Cosby allegations first came to light a decade ago I could see the basis for some of his support. It was one woman, with one story, and no one wanted to believe this one woman’s story as it would take down a man we all at one point slotted into the role of our father. Fast forward 10, 15 years later and there are now more than 50 women accusing Cosby of sexual assault. Their stories are all eerily similar in that they say Cosby drugged them or drank them into non-consensual oblivion. And then there’s that deposition that was finally released where Cosby, in his candor, admitted to procuring Quaaludes for the sole and express purpose of having sex. Cosby never admitted to rape, and he probably never will, but by his own implication what he is allegedly accused of doing to women is not only the women’s truth, but THE truth beyond a reasonable doubt.

50 women, most of whom do not all know each other, wouldn’t all concoct a story about being raped by a comedian in an ugly sweater.

Secondly, pressing charges against a rapist is not a money hustle. This is not some trap these women are setting for Mr. Cosby to fall into. They gain nothing by publicizing their abuse decades after the statute of limitations would have run out if they had filed criminal charges in the first place. These women are not coming after Cosby for alimony, or child support, or some ridiculous settlement sum that would be suitably sufficient to buy their silence. These women aren’t making money from their victimization. These women are regaining their power that was stolen from them when Bill Cosby entitled himself to them. These women are only regaining their agency as women over themselves and their body; and to a woman that’s more valuable than any dollar figure Cosby could ever offer.

Finally, let’s address the most egregious claim Damon Wayans made in his tirade to get attention. By the looks of some of the women they are unrapeable. WTF. Not only is this statement asinine and ass backwards, it’s irrelevant and has nothing to do with the actual act of rape. My Law & Order: SVU fans no that rape is not about looks, sex, or attraction but power and control. Scientific communities continue to debate this hypothesis, but that is mostly from researchers going on the theory that rape is about sexual gratification in an effort to please defense attorneys working to get their client off on a rape charge.

Sex is an intentional act, which means rape, in all of it’s horror, by the assailant is an intentional act. When Bill Cosby allegedly sexually assaulted the women who accuse him of such, Bill Cosby intentionally forced himself upon each and every one of those women, some of them more than once, others over the course of a saddistic relationship, because he felt like he had the right to do so. Bill Cosby was then and is now a married man. He didn’t need a mistress, or jump off, though he may have had all of those extra-marital relationships, to receive sexual gratification. Bill Cosby chose to take his gratification from women who did not want to grant him the pleasure. Models, actresses, comediennes, rising TV stars, and women whose stars were stamped out before they could brighten said NO, and Bill Cosby disregarded their words and raped their semi-comatose bodies. That is the power and control of a rapist not the motivations of a man so overcome by a woman’s beauty, or personality that he just had to have her and that man got caught up in the passion of the moment.

Looks never played a role into Cosby’s actions because they don’t matter. They didn’t matter then and they don’t matter now. Bill Cosby was the HNIC for decades; telling jokes, raising TV children into responsible adults with metaphors, anecdotes, and allegory used to drive his point across with just a bit of humor. His status made him entitled and he took that entitlement to mean that he could have any woman who came into his presence; her looks be damned.

But Damon Wayans doesn’t see it that way. But then again most rape apologists won’t.Questions1. Does Bill Cosby still deserve support from the Black community, Black men, fellow comedians?2. Why is it hard for folks to accept Bill Cosby's near criminal imperfection?3. What do you make of Damon Wayans comments?

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